What Percentage of Primary Care AR Is Uncollectible — and What Does the MGMA Benchmark Say?

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  In most high-performing practices, 3%–5% of primary care accounts receivable (AR) may become uncollectible, according to MGMA benchmark comparisons. When that percentage climbs higher, it signals breakdowns in revenue integrity, denial management, or patient collection workflows. For primary care practices operating on tight margins, even a 2% shift in uncollectible AR can significantly impact profitability and long-term financial stability. Understanding Uncollectible AR in Primary Care Uncollectible AR includes claims or patient balances that remain unpaid and are eventually written off as bad debt. In primary care, this typically happens due to: Insurance eligibility errors Missed the timely filing limits Weak denial follow-up High patient deductible balances Documentation gaps Coding inaccuracies Without strong primary care billing services , these issues compound over time, quietly reducing net collections. What MGMA Benchmarks Reveal While MGMA does not publis...
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E/M Coding Basics for Internal Medicine

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Evaluation and management is the most important part of the practice for an internist and coding for these visits can have an important effect on the bottom line of a practice. The decision about what level to bill an evaluation and management code is rarely clear to most physicians. In order to determine what code to select for an evaluation and management procedure, it helps to first learn the elements of a code. Once you understand the elements and how they come together to create the level, it can be a lot easier to select a code with confidence. In this article, we will focus on the documentation standards for evaluation and management codes: 

 
Chief Complaint
 
Every evaluation and management visit should start with a chief complaint - some kind of reason why the patient needs to be seen. Only a simple explanation is needed, it may be “cough” “1-year recheck of diabetes” or “nausea since Tuesday.” The chief complaint is required in order to establish medical necessity, a fundamental element of the Medicare program and a required element for billing this series of codes for the private sector as well. 

If you want to read the complete blog then click below: E/M Coding Basics for Internal Medicine


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